Historical Sources: Primary Sources

Primary sources are documents or facts created by a witness to or participant in an event.

Alporha and Candelaria (2018) define it as the sources produced at the same time as the event,
period or the subject being studied. These may include among others: letters, photographs,
newspapers and oral histories.

In order to understand the primary sources, below are some of the types of primary sources:

1. Material Objects
These include items with physical substance (Waugh, n.d.) They are primarily shaped or
produced by human action, though objects created by nature can also play an important
role in the history of human societies. For example, a coin is the product of human
action. An animal horn is not, but it takes on meaning for humans if used as a drinking
cup or a decorative or ritual object. Historical analysis of material objects requires
careful description. To analyze material evidence is to write an object's biography. Each
object has a story to tell, a story shaped by human use. When historians analyze material
objects, they begin by recording basic “facts,” starting with a verbal description and, if
possible, photographs. The description might include measurements, material, and
distinguishing features, such as ornamentation. This kind of information provides
material for generalization about technology, economy, or social relations within a given
society and how they changed over time.

When studying an object, Waugh (n.d.) said that one should start with these basic
descriptions:

● Observe the object carefully, paying close attention to detail.

● Take notes on material, size, shape, and distinguishing characteristics.
● Turn the object over if possible, examining from multiple angles and perspectives.
● Note what the descriptive label (from a book, website, or museum) tells you, but do not
let that description limit your questions.
 2. Images
An image is a representation of something on a flat plane: a person, animal, object, or
element of landscape. Images can be simple, focusing on one element, such as a house
or a person, or even alphabetic letters such as logos or calligraphy. Images can also be
complex, layering and assembling individual images (Bierman, 2004). Historians vary
in their approaches to analyzing the relationship between an image and its society and
thus understanding its meaning. Historians can perceive meaning in the social
relationships between the makers and uses of the image. They can seek to understand an
image by looking at how it relates to what it represents, its aesthetic properties, and how
it functions. When we analyze an image, historians pay close attention to the image
itself, the context within which it was created, and to the many different ways that image
may have been understood over time.

3. Maps
A map is a representation of space or place, or of phenomena as they exist in space. A map
portrays geographical features, spatial features, or a “geography.” A map can be of micro-space
(the layout of your bedroom), or of the biggest expanse we know, perhaps a schematic of the
cosmos (Seagar, 2004). The substance of a map provides a record of past landscapes and
features that may no longer exist. It also reflects the priorities, sensibilities, fears, and the state
of knowledge of the mapmaker and his or her cultural context. A map offers a reader a new
dimension of analysis, a visual dimension. One of the particular advantages of a map is that it
conveys non-linear and simultaneous knowledge. In a single glance at a map, a reader can tell
what’s going on over the whole map at a single moment in time. Historians use historical maps
for several purposes:

● As tools for reconstructing the past, to the extent that maps provide records of features,
landscape, cities, and places that may not exist anymore or that exist in dramatically
transformed form.
● As records of certain historical processes and relationships. Maps of trade routes, for
example, if available in a sequence over two or three time periods, will paint a portrait of
processes such as the pace of European expansion over the globe.
● As representations of the “worldview” of the mapmaking culture, and how that culture
saw its place (literally and metaphorically) in the world at the time the map was made

4. Music
Even when we are not listening, music is around us. It blares from radios and
headphones, kicks off sporting events, energizes crowds at demonstrations, and intrudes
 on our shopping experiences. But music is more than a component of other kinds of
activity. When we delve deeper into even one kind of sound that surrounds us on a daily
basis and grapple with its meaning, we get a unique opportunity to travel through other
kinds of experiences and perspectives. This kind of inquiry—studying music through the
ears and eyes of the people who make and consume music—is called ethnomusicology.
You can use some of the ethnomusicologist’s tools to uncover the historical and cultural
significance of any musical event you may encounter (Jacobson, 2005)

5. Newspaper
Newspapers from the past contain several kinds of information for historians. They offer
factual accounts of events such as earthquakes, battles, and elections. Historians often
mine newspapers for basic information about who did what, when, how, and where.
Newspapers are also filled with contextual information, such as advertisements and
features, from which historians can build a more complete picture of the world in which
a particular event took place Rubenstein, 2005)

6. Official Documents
Official documents may include reports, proclamations, letters, treaties, and
declarations. One of the first questions historians ask when analyzing documents is
“who is the author?” The author is often seen as a historical actor with goals or
experiences that shape the document. Official documents are written within a historical
and organizational context. When analyzing an official document, think about the events
and issues of the time period and apply this knowledge to a close analysis of the
statement and the processes that produced it.

7. Personal Accounts
Personal accounts, including memoirs, journals, diaries, autobiographies, and life
histories, are important historical sources that help us understand the human condition.
It can focus on particular events or may cover a life more completely. They sometimes
involve recollections focused on extraordinary events such as participation in wars or
catastrophic events, or explanations of unusual experiences. More recently, historians
have begun to note everyday experiences as a measure of social order, so personal
accounts can provide information on a particular “slice of life,” explaining the
circumstances of coming of age experiences or the way of life in a specific region.
 Personal accounts have also been an integral part of oral history studies in regions that
lack a legacy of written history (Mack, 2004)

8. Travel Narratives
Travel accounts represents the observations and experiences of individuals who visited
foreign lands constitute a special category of primary source for historians. Travel
accounts can be valuable in several ways. They have often provided information about a
foreign society that native inhabitants themselves did not supply, either because they
did not have a means to do so or because they did not see fit to record information that
they did not recognize as particularly distinctive or interesting. Besides that, particularly
talented or reflective travelers have sometimes been able to offer unusual insights into
the societies they visited. Of course, travel accounts are not just windows on foreign
societies but also mirrors that throw light back on the values of their own authors, who
wittingly or not have reflected the interests and concerns of their own societies when
recording their observations and experiences in foreign lands (Bently, 2004)

Historical Sources: Secondary Sources

Secondary Sources

Secondary Sources on the other hand are sources that came from primary sources. Secondary
sources are created after the studied event/work took place or the studied work was created.
They can therefore take into consideration other events and place a primary source in its
historical context. Secondary sources are not evidence but rather commentary on and
discussion of evidence (Source of Historical Sources, 2020). A secondary source is generally
one or more steps removed from the event or time period and are written or produced after the
fact with the benefit of hindsight. Secondary sources often lack the freshness and immediacy of
the original material.

Counted as secondary sources includes books, journal articles, encyclopedia, scholarly books,
magazine and newspaper reports, and dictionary entries.

Defining Questions

When evaluating primary or secondary sources, the following questions might be asked to help
ascertain the nature and value of material being considered:

1. How does the author know these details (names, dates, times)? Was the author present
at the event or soon on the scene?
2. Where does this information come from—personal experience, eyewitness accounts, or
reports written by others?
3. Are the author's conclusions based on a single piece of evidence, or have many sources
been taken into account (e.g., diary entries, along with third-party eyewitness accounts,
impressions of contemporaries, newspaper accounts)?

Ultimately, all source materials of whatever type must be assessed critically and even the most
scrupulous and thorough work is viewed through the eyes of the writer/interpreter. This must
be taken into account when one is attempting to arrive at the 'truth' of an event.

Historical Criticism
Both primary and secondary sources are helpful for historians to determine the narratives of
the past. However, historians should not accept these sources outright and immediately. They
have to examine the sources so that they would result to the real stories and avoid unnecessary
and unintentional deception.
With that, the sources undergo both Internal Criticism and External Criticism.

External Criticism

External criticism is the practice of verifying the authenticity of evidences by examining

its physical characteristics, consistency with the historical characteristics of the time it was
produced, and the materials used for the evidences (Alporha and Candelaria, 2018). This
answers the question of authenticity. To test its authenticity, the sources has to look the
following:

1. Determine the material of the document to see whether they are anachronistic
2. Determine the author
3. Anachronistic Styles e.g. idiom, orthography, punctuation
4. Anachronistic references to events
5. Provenance or custody
6. Semantics – determining the meaning of a text or word
7. Hermeneutics – determining ambiguities

Internal Criticism

According to Alporha and Candelaria (2018), internal criticism is the examination of the
truthfulness of the evidences. It assesses the content of the sources and the circumstances of its
production. Internal Criticism answers the problem of credibility. To test its credibility, the
sources has to look the following:

1. Identification of the author e.g. to determine his reliability; mental processes, personal
attitudes;
2. Determination of the approximate date e.g. handwriting, signature, seal;
3. Ability to tell the truth e.g. nearness to the event, competence of the witness, degree of
attention;
4. Willingness to tell the truth e.g. to determine if the author consciously or unconsciously
tells falsehood;
5. Corroboration i.e. historical facts – particulars which rests upon the independent
testimony of two or more reliable witnesses